


Couture, Darling

by IShipItAllAndThenSome



Series: Slow-Burning Laser Eyes [4]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Bad Communication, Caring Kara Danvers, Caring Lena Luthor, Cat Grant Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Cat Grant Ships It, Cuddling & Snuggling, Declarations Of Love, Engaged Sanvers, F/F, Fake Dating, Feelings, Flirting, Kara Danvers Is A Nerd, Lena Luthor Is A Nerd, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Love Confessions, Oblivious Lena Luthor, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Protective Kara Danvers, Protective Lena Luthor, References to Gotham Heroes and Anti-Heroes, Sharing a Bed, Soft Gays™, Stardust - Freeform, Superpowers As Flirting, Thirsty Lena Luthor, Voltron: Legendary Defenders - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 13:29:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12233814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShipItAllAndThenSome/pseuds/IShipItAllAndThenSome
Summary: Supergirl's costume gets an upgrade; Lena doesn't know how she's going to explain this to the press.Good thing her Best Friend™ is a reporter.





	Couture, Darling

Jess was a lifesaver, if begrudgingly so. She readily brought Lena’s food down to her private lab, since no one else had access, but she would linger for a few minutes after every delivery.

“Ms. Danvers called to ask if you were still on for movie night,” she said, setting down a plastic container of risotto, still in its brown paper bag - on top of a pizza box Lena didn’t order. Jess crossed her arms over her chest and stared Lena down.

Lena flipped up her welding mask and pulled off her gloves. “Thank you, Jess. Can you tell her I should be done by nine?”

“It’s nine fifteen.”

_God fucking damnit._

Lena looked at her project, probably the most important thing she’d ever make: an alloy polymer for Supergirl’s suit. She’d been up to her eyeballs in metallurgy for weeks, even digging back into the history of medieval textiles to find out how cloth-of-gold was made so she could replicate the process with a more resilient metal, and she was almost done.

With a fucking swatch.

“Okay. I’m going to finish soldering this edge, and then I’m going to go. If I’m not done in five minutes, you have permission to drag me out by my hair.”

“My willingness to do that depends entirely on when you last washed it, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena smiled and flipped the mask back down. Soldering iron back on, she finished off the 4”x4” square of silvery metal - titanium, tungsten, maraging steel, and inconel, melted down, shaped into filaments only eight microns thick and woven into a fabric softer than cashmere and sturdier than a damn tank - then cleaned up and ran.

Actually ran.

Still, by the time she got to Kara’s apartment, it was almost ten, and she felt like the world’s biggest asshole. “I’m so sorry I’m late,” she gasped, hands clumsy as she tried to use her key, “I was working on, um - ”

Kara opened the door for her with a smile that shook Lena’s brain like an Etch-A-Sketch, totally erasing whatever else she was planning to say. “It’s okay. Jess called back and said you were playing with fire; I’m glad you didn’t rush.” She ushered Lena in with an arm around her waist, fingers splayed across the small of her back, and Jeanne launched herself at Lena. Only by virtue of Kara’s reflexes, speed, and strength, was Lena not tackled clean through the door.

“Hey, nugget,” Lena gasped, scratching her behind the ear and grinning hugely. “Did you grow from last night?”

“Probably. She went through two things of that organic wet food.”

“Things?”

“…Costco pallets.”

Lena cackled, head knocking into Kara’s shoulder. “Oh, god. Ms. b’Ark, what am I gonna do with you?”

_Boof!_

Kara, still holding Jeanne, padded around and held her over her face, saying in a Scooby Doo voice, “Rove me?”

For the second time in as many minutes, Lena’s brain went to static. When she recovered, she scratched the collar of fluff around Jeanne’s neck and kissed her nose. “Always. Cross my heart and hope to fly.”

“Fly?”

“Well, I can’t leave you to take care of her alone, can I?” Lena asked. “Today was bad enough; I can’t imagine Snapper was pleased to see her in the office. Besides, I think I’m more afraid of flying than I am of. Well. Death.”

Kara’s grip on Jeanne shifted, and her newly freed-up arm reached out, newly freed-up fingers tangling into hers. “Actually, Snapper was. Um.” She cleared her throat. “He was pretty psyched to see Krypto the Superdog.”

“What.”

“Cat named her.”

“I named her!”

“Well, _superhero_ her.” Kara dragged Lena over to the couch and sat them both down, half-hiding behind Jeanne’s fur. “Turns out, some people caught her on camera, fighting that cat from Del 76, and since we have the same powers, people made the connection.”

“My dog’s a superhero.”

Kara shrugged, peeping out from around Jeanne’s neck. “Are you mad?”

“No. It can’t be helped.” Lena tucked her feet up under her and started scratching Jeanne’s chest. “Besides, she seemed pretty happy to help, huh, girl? Did you have fun, beating up bad guys?”

_Boof!_

“I can’t be mad, so long as she’s safe and happy.” Jeanne’s tongue swiped up Lena’s nose, and she wrinkled it, closing her eyes and nuzzling Jeanne’s chin. “And I’m going to make sure she’s safe. And _you.”_

“You finished it?”

“I finished a _sample.”_ Lena went to reach into her hip pocket for the swatch, but Jeanne took that postural shift as a cue to leap into Lena’s lap, trapping her hands. “Can you, um. Get it?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” 

Kara reached into Lena’s pocket, the heel of her hand against the top of Lena’s thigh, fingers curling around her leg. Lena could practically feel the whorls on her fingertips through the fabric of her pants.

_Lena, keep it together._

“Oh, wow,” Kara breathed.

_Keep it together, Lena, I swear to god!_

“This is so soft.”

_I’m going to die. I am going to fucking burst into flames and die._

Kara’s hand pulled out, and she worked the shimmery scrap of fabric between her fingers, where it flowed like water over her knuckles, absently scratching Jeanne as she jumped off the couch and padded off. “What is this made of?”

“The same stuff as spaceships,” Lena managed, voice catching in her throat. “It’s about the strongest material on Earth.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“I based the structure off of a medieval luxury fabric - ”

“Cloth-of-gold! I read about that when I first got to Earth. I thought it sounded so cool, but this - ” Letting out a breath, a soft smile spread across Kara’s face like molten sugar. “You’re gonna make my suit out of this?”

“Well, I have to integrate anti-Kryptonite technology, maybe some solar channels so you can have protective coverage against attacks but still absorb sunlight - might prevent solar flares - but there’s stuff I should, _you_ should, run by your people, and then there’s the actual design - ”

Kara tackled her, wrapping her up in a big, warm bear hug, face tucked into her hair. “Rao, Lena, this is the nicest thing…” She pulled back, eyes shiny-bright. “Thank you.”

“Hey, it’s - I’m happy to do it.” Lena gave a watery smile, leaning into Kara’s hand on her shoulder. “You take care of everyone, and you work so hard at it - the least I can do is help take care of you, too.”

Kara pulled her into another hug, this one somehow deeper. Her fingers curled into Lena’s hair and wrapped around her waist, and she let out a sigh, half-melting. “You’re a good friend, Lena,” she said softly.

Lena’s heart did a funny little twist, and she closed her eyes. “I’m just trying to keep up.”

“Well, you’re doing great.”

Kara hadn’t let go just yet, and no way in hell was Lena going to pull away first. Being hugged by Kara was like getting a Hogwarts letter: everything fell into place and the world finally made sense. It felt like coming home.

Eventually, though, the hug broke like a bubble popping, and they settled back onto their own couch cushions, knees knocking as they relocated. Jeanne returned, gnawing on a plush toy potsticker - Auntie Alex has a sense of humor - that squeaked in her jaw as she hopped back onto the couch behind Lena’s back, burrowing into the corner of the couch. 

“Hey, that’s where _my_ butt goes, Ms. b’Ark,” she protested. It was only a token struggle, and she scooted over, allowing her a spot on the couch. Jeanne kept her hind paws by the arm of the couch, but stretched her fluffy body over their laps, nosing at Kara’s elbow and wagging her tail lazily. 

“Mooch,” Kara grumbled, beaming down at her and petting behind her ears. Jeanne whuffled, tail wagging faster, and snuggled down into her legs, resting her chin on her paws. “So: what movie?”

“You pick.” Lena leaned into the back of the couch and dragged a blanket down around her shoulders, scratching Jeanne’s haunches. “I’ve had enough thinking today.”

Kara settled on Stardust, in DVD format. She’d gotten a copy in college during a dorm-wide Secret Santa and hadn’t given it up.

“This is half the fun!” she insisted, hefting a resistant Jeanne off her lap so she could insert the disk. “I love all the little steps.”

“There are steps to Netflix, too,” Lena teased, but she understood. Some of her fondest memories with her birth mother involved going to Blockbuster after preschool on Fridays, picking up _Matilda_ or _Land Before Time,_ and watching them from within a blanket fort with too-buttery popcorn mixed with Junior Mints. She appreciated the little steps, too.

Kara fiddled with her TV for a moment, and there was a span of about thirty seconds where it played local news.

_( - in possession of Supergirl’s dog, according to two survivors of the alien attack in downtown National City last week. The two have been photographed together on the CEO’s balcony, and the Maid of Might has come to her rescue more than once, but the real question is, what’s going on with this Luthor and Super pair? Was Lena Luthor behind the attack? Is Lena Luthor up to - )_

Then Kara got it to switch over. Cheeks pink, jaw tight, she clicked through the menu, pressed _Play_ , and flopped back onto the couch. 

 _“ - no good?”_ Lena supplied, voice a hammy imitation of the newscaster’s exaggerated drawl. 

“You’re up to plenty good,” huffed Kara. Jeanne crawled back into her lap and eagerly submitted to her agitated petting. “You’re building me a new suit, for - ” She paused, covering Jeanne’s ears. _“For fuck’s sake!”_

“Hey, it’s okay.” Lena reached over and gave Kara’s shoulder a squeeze. “She doesn’t mind cursing.”

Kara snorted. 

“And I don’t mind the news.” Lena shrugged. “I only ever watch coverage of your fights, anyways.”

Brow furrowed, Kara asked, “Why?”

After a moment, Lena admitted, “I want to know you’re okay.” Then she stood up abruptly and padded towards the kitchen. “We don’t have snacks. I’m gonna get snacks.”

“We have pickle flavored chips.”

Lena froze, midstep. _Oh._ “My favorite.”

“Of course. You’re my best friend - it’s illegal not to have your favorite snacks, even if they are gross.”

Lena scoffed. “They’re _delicious._ ”

“And we have soft cookies from the bakery near CatCo, and three flavors of ice cream.”

“I’m grabbing all of them, right?”

“Yes, please!”

Lena returned with everything balanced precariously atop the now-cold pizza, and set it all down on the coffee table, shutting off the lights on the way. They parsed everything out, complete with hiding the plastic separator so Jeanne wouldn’t get any crazy ideas and try to eat it, before the movie had even gotten started.

“We,” Kara decreed, gesturing grandly with two stacked slices of (gross) Hawaiian pizza, “make an excellent team.”

“Yeah. I guess we do.” Lena tapped her spoon against Kara’s crust, then took a bite. “Ugh. Cold risotto is not welcome in our team up.”

Kara squinted at it, bolts of heat firing out of her eyes, and soon it was steamy again. _“Bon appétit!”_

Lena grinned, hunkering down to watch the movie. She _definitely_ didn’t spend half of it sneaking glances at Kara’s profile, the way the flickering blue light of the screen illuminated her eyes, the fleeting microexpressions that crossed her face as she got sucked into the plot, mouthing along to all the best lines. 

Absolutely not.

She picked at her snacks, keeping the mint chip ice cream far from her baby’s curious (and highly allergic) mouth, and managed not to miss Robert DeNiro in drag or Claire Danes in the bath.

“Is my costume going to be all silvery?” Kara asked at one point.

“I was going to dye it. Unless you want it silvery.”

“No! No, that’s - I was just thinking.” Kara looked over at Lena for just a moment, grinning softly and shifting the alloy swatch so it shone. “Starlight.”

“Oh.”

“It matches her dress, is all.”

It did, indeed, match Yvaine’s silver star dress. Lena huffed a laugh and batted Kara’s hand away from the screen, leaning to reach. “Tell you what. Once you have a suit, we can work on armored cosplay.”

“Only if you promise to dress up with me.” Kara pointed her spoon at Lena, eyes intense, twinkling. “I expect breeches and boots and a waistcoat, Lena, nothing less.”   
“I’m sure I’ll make a lovely Captain Shakespeare.”

“I was thinking you’d make an even better Boy from Wall.” Kara’s cheeks went pink, possibly; in the half-dark, it was hard to tell. “Girl. Girl from wall. Because you’re a girl. And it’s good that your a girl! Girls are great! I love girls!”

She snapped her mouth shut, eyes wide.

“Who doesn’t?” Lena offered, thinking, _stop it, brain! You stop that right now!_ “I mean, I know I do.”

They finished the movie, mushed into each other by Jeanne’s squirming, and after that, ended up on Netflix, anyway.

“Ooh! Voltron!”

Somehow, one week after one nearly destroyed their city, Kara and Lena fell asleep on top of each other watching a cartoon about giant cats from outer space.

Robot cats, to be fair, but still.

☀︎

“Why didn’t you have multiple costumes?” Lena asked from behind her welding mask. Her mini torch was lit, and she would’ve preferred to do this in her lab at L Corp, where she couldn’t accidentally incinerate her best friend’s - _best friend_ \- couch, but Kara was very, very insistent on working from home. “Just for practicality’s sake.”

“Well, Winn was the one who made it, and I didn’t want to make him do all that work again.” Kara laughed, practically a cackle. “Oh, my god, I _do_ have a spare!”

“Should I - should I stop?”

“No! Yours is awesome, keep going!” Kara came back out, a bundle of red and blue fabric in hand. “This one was a casualty of my building’s busted dryer, I’m afraid. The superintendent messed up the heating coils, and, well, it doesn’t fit anymore.”

“That’s too bad.”

“You should’ve seen the stuff Winn came up with. He didn’t even want a cape at first, can you believe that?”

“The cape is half the fun!”

“I know!” Kara spun on her heel and made to flop down onto the couch, catching herself at the last minute and just floating. “Sorry. No acrobatics near 3500º Celsius oxyacetylene torches.”

“You could do all the acrobatics you liked in my lab,” Lena sing-songed. 

Kara wrinkled her nose and shook her head like Jeanne after bath time. “Nah. I’ll just have to control myself better.” A serious look came over her face, and she nodded sharply. “I got this.”

“Sure you do, sunshine.” Lena turned back to her welding, sealing a sleeve onto the costume’s bodice. Even with the new color, which also served as a particle barrier against Kryptonite, there was still a faint sheen to the material, but Kara seemed to like it, so Lena wouldn’t put any thought into dampening the glow. “Are we sticking with the skirt?”

Kara sat back and picked up the shreds of her old costume, complete with the teeth marks on her skirt that had left it in tatters. “I’d rather not be a chew toy.”

“You and everyone else in National City. Pants it is.”

“Can I have pockets?”

“You can have _so many_ pockets.”

Kara nodded, perching herself on the back of the couch, one foot propped up on the arm while the other rested on her knee. “I was. Um.”

“Yeah?”

“I was kind of thinking about…” Kara took a breath. “Kryptonian armor.”

Lena shut off the welding torch and set it down, head up so it couldn’t burn anything. She flipped up the mask, then scooted so she could actually look at Kara’s face.

It was a nervous face, a solid six or seven out of ten.

Lena reached up and put a hand on Kara’s leg, just above her bent knee, and gave a gentle squeeze through the fabric of her sweatpants. “I’m on board. Tell me all about it.”

They spent the next six hours dishing on structural integrity and design concepts. Kara caught on quick with the welding torch, and soon enough, she had a whole damn suit - complete with pockets, a cape, and the House of El’s crest.

“The seams might be uncomfortable,” Lena cautioned. “Welding can create textural irregularities, it might feel a little weird.”

“Only one way to find out!” chirped Kara, zooming off the couch and snatching up the uniform on the way. She changed just inside her room, tossing clothes to the side, and as her pants went flying, Lena realized Kara had been wearing sweats with the L Corp logo.

“Are you wearing my merchandise?”

“You never do, so someone had to.”

Lena ignored the warm, bubbly feeling in her chest and stretched her legs out on the couch. Her feet ended up in the sleeve of one of the ditched costumes, and she peeled it off.

It was a crop top.

“What the hell?”

Lena started digging, and seconds later, came up with hot pants. Actual hot pants.

“Who fights crime with that much exposed skin? That’s, what, seventy percent of your body totally unprotected!”

“Are you yelling at Winn’s first drafts?”

“Oh, my god, of course it was Winn.”

“I mean, I don’t even wear bikinis at the beach,” Kara muttered, walking out. “Surf shirt and board shorts all the way.”

Lena banished three images from her mind - booty shorts Kara, bikini Kara, board shorts Kara - and looked the actual Kara over.

The armor structure emphasized her already impressive muscles, and the extra protection around her floating ribs wasn’t too bulky. Kara’s quick sketches of her aunt’s ceremonial armor were clearly present in the finished product.

Kara was smiling.

Hands on her hips, she asked, “How do I look?”

“Perfect,” was the only answer Lena could come up with. It came out breathless and earnest and too, too quiet, but it was the truth, and she wouldn’t take it back, gun to her head.

“You think?” Kara gently lifted off the ground and started to hover, spinning slowly. 

_Shiny back muscles, holy shit._

“Um. Cape.”

“Cape!”

Lena collected it and carried it reverently over. Kara floated down to the floor and tipped her head forwards, brushing her hair off her neck and twisting it out of the way, which, _shoulders and neck_. Lena stretched onto her tiptoes and carefully attached the cape to the suit, smoothing it down over her collarbone, before giving it a quick tug to check that it was secure. Satisfied, she stepped back.

Kara hesitated a moment, then turned on the balls of her feet, lifting into the air. Her hair slipped back over her shoulder, and her cape swung behind her.

“How is it?” Lena asked, fingers fidgeting with each other.

“I like it.” Kara beamed. “It’s so soft, but it feels sturdy, y’know? I think, short of a field test, we’ve got a conclusive A+.”

Lena grinned. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Hey, Superdog, what do you think?”

Jeanne, who had been dozing under the coffee table, surrounded by toy potstickers, bolted upright and bounded over to Kara. Pacing under her feet for a moment, Jeanne jumped up and braced her paws on Kara’s shoulders to lick her chin.

“Looks like my baby approves!” Kara cooed, wrapping her arms under Jeanne’s fluffy butt and holding her up. “Huh?”

_Boof!_

“Ms. b’Ark has impeccable taste.”

“Of course she does.” 

“She needs a cape, too,” said Lena, fishing out the last piece of armored fabric. She hopped over the back of the couch and grabbed the chain link collar they’d built at the DEO specifically so Jeanne couldn’t tear through it, but once it was in her hand, she had a sudden flash of being served for tampering with government property. “I’m… I’m not going to tamper with this.”

“Good idea.”

“I’ll just make another one. But - Jeanne, c’mere.”

Jeanne, currently hanging off Kara’s cape, jumped off, skittering across the floor and only narrowly avoiding breaking Kara’s kitchen table before pouncing into Lena’s arms. Lena staggered, but stayed upright.

“Hover.”

Jeanne hovered, and Lena managed to loosely knot the alloy around her neck, folding the fabric over like a bandana. 

“You _might_ look just a little bit like a dog from a nineties Lifetime movie,” she apologized, smoothing the fabric down Jeanne’s neck, “but you’re still a very heroic puppy.”

_Boof!_

Jeanne wagged her tail hard enough to generate a stiff breeze, propelling her in a little circle like a canoe with one frantic paddler. 

Kara clutched her hands to her chest and zoomed over. “Baby-baby-baby-baby!”

_Boof!_

“Ooh, who’s my best baby? Who’s my brave baby?”

_Boof!_

“That’s right! Superdog!” Kara buried her face in Jeanne’s flank and made a noise that seemed to tickle the puppy, because she managed an impressively humanoid laugh, a fast sort of whuffling noise accompanied by a full body wriggle. 

“Good to know I’m not the only ticklish one in this house,” Lena grumbled, scratching under Jeanne’s chin. 

Kara slowly looked up, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

The gleam did not fade.

“I mean it, Kara, don’t even try it.”

“We should go to the desert.”

“I mean, I’ll take any change of topic, but that was abrupt.”

“So I can test my suit with my new fluffy sidekick.”

_Boof!_

“I’m sorry, you’re right, Superdog.” Solemnly, Kara scratched her ear and said, “I am the sidekick.”

“You,” Lena interjected, aghast, “are _no one’s_ sidekick.”

“So I’m in charge?”

Lena bit her lip. _Goddamnit, brain._

They went into the desert. A few miles ahead, there were a series of hexagonal tube buildings running parallel to the ground, little pylons marking out an agility course around them. Lena had a guess as to what it was, but she didn’t voice it. 

Finding out just how many DEO bases there were wasn’t _that_ high on her bucket list.

“Welcome to the desert base!”

_Strike it from the list._

Two tiny women were waiting, both with the kind of piercing eyes that could make even the most hardened person nervous. Lena hopped out of Kara’s arms as soon as they landed, smoothing out her skirt and pretending the heat in her face was the beginnings of a sunburn.

Kara, however, was uncowed. She let out a squeal and scooped the shorter of the two, the one with the wavy chin-length hair, up in a tight hug, swooping in a circle in the air. “Lucy!”

“Down, puppy,” Lucy laughed. “And, also… _puppy._ ”

“Oh.” Kara put her down. “Oh! No, she’s Lena’s. Lucy, meet - ”

“Lena Luthor.” Lucy smiled, mouth closed, eyes bright. “I get the news. Interesting stuff lately, you going all Themyscira with that car door two weeks ago - ”

The taller of the pair, bangs tucked behind her ear, smacked Lucy on the arm. Lucy made a face and swatted her back. 

“I’m Lucy Lane.” She extended a perfectly manicured hand and shook with about the same level of force as Lena - the I Might Be Smaller And Softer Than Everyone In This Room, But I Can And Will Crush You grip. “Nice to meet you. Big fan of your work with children’s hospitals and how you gave your family the fuck off.”

“Lane?” _Oh._ “Likewise.” 

“Agent Vasquez.”

“Nice to meet you.” Jeanne barked, digging in the sand. As a cloud of it blew into her nose, she sneezed, freezing over a solid four feet of desert terrain. “She’s Jeanne b’Ark.”

“We know each other, don’t we, fluffbutt?” Lucy asked, extending her hand to sniff. “She crash landed out here a little while back. We figured she should stay with someone who she couldn’t incinerate on accident, but I guess _someone_ forgot what chain of command means.”

Kara gave a nervous laugh. “We kind of - co-parent her.”

“Hence her superheroic shenanigans?”

“Shenanigans? Vas, you and Alex spend too much time together.”

“I’m gonna be her best man! By all rites, I should be spending _more_ time with the blushing bride.”

“Promise me if you ever call her that to her face, you’ll be separated by quarantine glass and you’ll get it on video.” There were, as far as Lena knew, exactly two people who could tell Alex she was being anything approaching mushy and live to tell the tale: her fiancée and her baby sister.

“Oh,” drawled Lucy, “trust in the power of the little sister.”

As a little sister, Lena had no other option.

They sat in the shade of the building, firing off training obstacles that scared the shit out of Lena but didn’t seem to bother anyone else at all. Kara stopped every missile, dodged every phaser blast, with Jeanne right on her heels.

“So, you and Kara are..?”

“Friends. Best friends.” Lena wrinkled her nose. “That sounds so kindergarten.”

“She once put puffy stickers on my computer to make me feel better when I came in flu-y and hungover,” Vasquez said, shrugging her shoulders. “If anyone can pull it off, it’s Kara.”

Kara roundhouse kicked a missile midair, sending it flying. “Superdog,” she giggled, “fetch!”

Jeanne zoomed off, and Kara jogged over, flopping down in the sand beside them, her knee knocking into Lena’s. “That was fun.”

“I bet. Are you sweating?”

Kara wiped at her forehead, inspecting the back of her hand. “Little bit. That’s the power of puppies.”

Lena wordlessly offered up her water bottle and Kara downed a third of it, then dumped the rest on her face. “I forgot how hot the desert gets,” she mumbled.

“Yeah.” Lena swallowed hard. “Hot.” 

They sat in the shade until the shade had shifted. Jeanne still hadn’t come back. Lena started worrying, fingers fidgeting with each other.

“Hey.” Kara put her hand over Lena’s and squeezed gently. “I’m gonna go yell for her, okay?”

Kara flew off, and Lena started pacing. 

“Luthor. Park it.”

Lena skidded to a stop in the sand, then continued to pace. “My dog and my - friend are lost in the fucking Mojave. Do you know how many people die of exposure per annum? One thousand, three hundred and one.”

“Kara’s not going to die of exposure in the desert,” Lucy drawled. “If anything, she’ll come back so pumped full of yellow sun radiation she’ll shred out of her new suit.”

_Kara: sweaty and shredded._

_Sweet buttery Christ, you gay disaster, shut up and get a grip._

Lena sat down. 

Fifteen minutes later, Kara came back, Jeanne curled up in her arms, gnawing on a piece of missile chassis in her sleep.

“My poor baby got all tuckered out chasing that dummy bomb down,” Kara cooed, smooching the back of Jeanne’s neck. “Didn’t you, Superdog, huh? Sleepy bean?”

Lena let out the sigh of a lifetime. “Is she okay?”

“She curled up to take a nap midair. I saw the sun glinting off her li’l cape - like a homing beacon.”

“I should build a homing beacon,” Lena grumbled, getting to her feet and peering down at Jeanne. “Oh, dumb nugget, don’t do that, okay? I worry.”

“She’s just rowdy. My good rambunctious girl - oh, baby, no, don’t swallow the burnt metal.” Kara fished the chunk of metal out of Jeanne’s sleepy-drooly mouth and chucked it aside. “There we go. That’s better.”

☀︎

Lena built a homing beacon. She welded one into Jeanne’s cape - which was now a proper cape, impossible to remove except by a biometric lock keyed to a few select people - but by the time she’d completed the set, Kara was out of town.

CatCo business, surprisingly, a journalistic mores conference in Gotham, which, _yikes._ Lena spent the whole trip nervously rubbing Jeanne’s belly, because that city had one damn vigilante and about eighty bad guys constantly running amok, and Kara would doubtlessly get sucked into the mess. 

Killer clowns were decidedly 2016, but dated doesn’t mean not deadly.

Kara came back through National City’s airport on a midnight flight. The crappy free backpack she’d gotten at the conference was overflowing with bat-printed tourist trap merch, and the seams split when Lena and Jeanne jointly tackle-hugged her at Arrivals.

“I saw you,” Lena hissed, “with that… _plant lady._ And the girl with the bat.”

“The girl with the baseball bat?”

 _“And_ the girl with the bat on her chest.”

“Are you jealous?” Kara teased, squeezing Lena back, fingers toying with the ends of her hair.

Lena spluttered, “What? No!” with a pounding heart and pink cheeks. Definitely not jealous. Hell no.

“Because there’s no replacing Lena Luthor.” Kara started walking, arm still looped around Lena’s shoulders, and Lena drifted after her on a little giddy cloud.

“Okay. Wait! Your bag.”

They stopped, and Lena managed to work some geometric magic and fold Kara’s Batgirl briefs and hoodie into her already overpacked - “overprepared” - suitcase.

“Speaking of, um, _clothing,_ ” she said meaningfully, “I have an upgrade for you.”

“Ooh!” Kara bounced on the balls of her feet, grin blinding. “What is it?”

“You’ll see. We need open space to test, though - but no deserts. I’m not risking either of you in Death Valley again.”

They dropped Kara’s stuff off at her apartment, swinging by Noonan’s because Kara had been craving sticky buns all week before heading to the dog park.

“So! This,” Lena said, holding out the as-of-yet-unembedded beacon, “will issue an echolocation frequency that only Kryptonian dog ears can hear. If Ms. b’Ark gets lost, separated, whatever, you can call her back with it, but it works both ways. If you get trapped somewhere, activate the beacon and she can lead a team to come rescue your perky ass.”

“Perky?”

Cheeks pink, Lena said, “Play fetch for a little while. Get warmed up. Once we have a baseline, I’ll attach the beacon, and we can draw comparisons.”

“National City’s Perkiest Butt, at your service!”

Lena sat, slurping down iced espresso on a bench and carefully not making eye contact as she watched Kara play with their puppy.

Sometimes it hit her out of nowhere that they shared a dog.

After about an hour of Kara stretching and Jeanne fetching, the former hollered, “Get over here! My body is ready!”

_Oh, god, why?_

Lena hustled up the hill on the far edge of the park where Kara leaned up against a tree, absently scratching behind Jeanne’s ears. When she got there, Lena knelt and said, “Give me your hand.”

“Right or left?”

“Left. Dominant hand access.”

Kara laid her left hand into the cradle of Lena’s fingers and watched her affix the beacon to the ring finger of her sleeve. She reached into her pocket for her soldering iron and came up empty.

“Goddamnit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I left my mini torch at home.”

“Oh, duh: heat vision.” Kara raised her hand to her eyes and melted the beacon carefully into place. Beaming, she said, “There! Perfect.”

She pulled Lena to her feet, then picked up the piece of rebar Jeanne had been gnawing on since she’d helped a burning building not transmute into rubble two days prior. “Go long, Superdog!” she yelled, throwing it hard. 

Jeanne took off in a blur, and Kara giggled, peering out after her. “Look at my baby fly!”

“Yeah, she’s a good girl.”

After a moment’s silent surveillance, Kara said, “Okay. She’s caught it, she’s playing with it - how do I call her back?”

“Here, let me.”

Kara watched as Lena fiddled with the beacon. There was a tiny click, and then Jeanne came zooming back. She dropped the rebar at Kara’s feet, panting happily, and Lena reached out to scratch her muzzle. 

“That’s a good girl!”

“My best baby, doing the best job,” Kara yawned, ruffling Jeanne’s fur; she yawned in sympathy. “Mm! Sleepy baby.”

“ _Two_ sleepy babies,” Lena teased, nudging Kara’s ribs with her elbow. “C’mon. You’re not due at CatCo for six hours - that’s time for three solid REM cycles, a shower, and breakfast.”

“I like the way you think.” Kara scooped Lena up into her arms. “Up, up, and away?”

_Boof!_

They soared off to Kara’s apartment, peeled out of their clothes and pulled on pajamas - BatFam merch is surprisingly soft; Wayne Industries makes decent women’s clothes for a company run by a dude - before falling into Kara’s king sized bed and conking out.

Lena hadn’t slept half so well with Kara out of town.

When they woke up, they rushed off to work with parting hugs and overflowing travel mugs. It was deliciously domestic, and Lena carried that with her all day.

At least until lunch, when she received an onslaught of texts from about everyone in her contacts.

It was only about six people - Kara, Maggie, Alex, James, Winn, and somehow Lucy Lane was in there as the founder of the Badass Baby Sisters Club - but they all said the same thing: don’t check the headlines.

Kara was texting, so she wasn’t in a fight, which meant normally, Lena wouldn’t have looked at the news. But the fastest way to make her do something was to tell her not to, so she asked Jess to get her a copy of every paper on the nearest magazine stand.

Jess came back with a tablet hidden behind her back. “Ms. Luthor, I don’t recommend - ”

“Jess. Whatever it is, I’ve sat through worse. I haven’t done anything worthy of the title ‘Bitch Heir Apparent’ this week, no one’s died on L Corp property or because of our products.”

Jess still hesitated.

“I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

Jess extended the device, a look of foreboding on her face, but she was preempted by a direct phone call.

“That’s not supposed to happen.”

“I’ll go see what’s going on with the phones,” Jess said, fleeing with tablet in tow. After a moment, she called, “It’s CatCo.”

So Lena picked up the phone. “Kara? What’s going on?”

“This is Cat Grant, and if this weren’t so high profile a situation, you wouldn’t even know I was involved. You’re needed in my office twelve minutes ago.”

Lena felt about five years old, being chastised for having her school uniform’s tie crooked, and booked it to CatCo. Security didn’t even check her ID; Lena supposed Kara escorting her in for lunch dates every Thursday for a month straight served as plenty identification.

Up on the publishing floor, she marched out of the elevator and immediately was greeted by the sight of Kara, frantically pacing, in a glass office with a petite blonde woman leaning against a desk speaking calmly to her.

“Is something wrong?” Lena asked, ducking in with Jeanne in tow. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know if there was a dogs policy, but I couldn’t leave her. She gets antsy.”

“I suppose I’ll have to tolerate it,” the woman said dryly. “Cat Grant, CEO of CatCo.”

“Lena Luthor, CEO of L Corp.”

“I know who you are, Ms. Luthor. I _am_ the news.”

Lena bit her lip. “Right. Okay. Will someone please tell me what’s going on? When I asked Jess, she looked like she was approaching the guillotine.”

Cat Grant turned a tablet Lena’s way with the elegant turn of her wrist to reveal a tweet.

“Since when is Twitter a life and death situation?”

“Read and scroll, Ms. Luthor.”

Lena read and scrolled.

_omg!! lena lesbian luthor proposed to supergirl!!! #PowerCouple #LenaZorEl #isitgayifshesanalien #doeskryptonisgay #KryptoShipsIt_

Attached was a blurry smartphone shot of Lena.

Kneeling before Kara.

Holding her left hand.

While she smiled, huge and luminous, eyes soft as she gazed down at Lena from beneath a tree’s canopy.

_Life and death. I can see it now._

Jeanne whined, licking Lena’s fingers.

“It’s a video,” Kara groaned. “Click the - ”

Lena clicked. Video Lena reached into her pocket, then touched Video Kara’s hand. Video Kara looked at her hand, and something gleamed. Smiling, she hauled Video Lena to her feet, and they stood, shoulders pressed together, playing with Video Krypto the Video Superdog.

Their fingers tangled together.

“Oh, gosh.”

“This is one of the kinder tweets, I’m afraid,” Cat drawled. “The internet is a lovely place, deeply divided on every issue. This one is split along the line of your intentions towards the Girl of Steel: romance or revenge.”

_“Revenge?”_

“The Luthor V. Super episode of Family Feud may be off the air, but people are still watching reruns. You, Ms. Luthor, need to make a stand.” Cat’s hand retracted, taking the tablet with it before Lena could swipe too far down the feed. “And, considering that Kara here is Supergirl - ahem, Supergirl’ _s_ official-unofficial press liaison, and the only person you’ll give exclusives to, CatCo has graciously offered to handle the official take on it with an exclusive interview.”

“How philanthropic,” said Lena dryly. “I’ll have to ask my girlfriend.”

Kara spluttered, face bright red.

“Who, by the way, I didn’t know I was dating.”

“Well, have you thought about it?”

Now it was Lena’s turn to turn into as big a mess outside as she was inside. “What? Me - Super - _date?_ That’s absurd. She’s my friend. I mean - as a lesbian, why - ? So, yes - no! I’ve never - ”

“Oh, please, take your time. I have absolute _hours_ to waste on this charming soliloquy.”

Lena let out a huff and crossed her arms. Then, feeling childish, she settled her hands on her hips. “Ms. Grant, I am not in a relationship with Supergirl, and I don’t appreciate the insinuation that a woman attracted to women can’t be platonically intimate with another woman.”

_Why did I say intimate?_

“Oh, it’s not my insinuation. It’s the internet’s. And… @Katie_Neon seems to think that it’s more than just insinuation - it’s fact. And so do her thirteen thousand Twitter followers.” Cat shut down the tablet’s screen with a wry twist to her mouth. “All but three of which came _after_ that tweet. Whether you like it or not, the story’s out there. It’s your job to shape the narrative to what best suits your life. Grab the bull by the horns, the heroine by the cape, whatever suits your, no doubt extravagant, fancy.”

Lena opened her mouth to say something, then clacked it shut. 

“Um, Ms. Grant, I’m gonna go take Lena - talk to Lena! - somewhere for a second. To explain the kind of interview we’d be doing.”

“Oh, go right on ahead.” Cat waved them off. “I need to hunt down the source of that disturbingly perspiratory odor. I thought I’d cleaned out the last of James’ things, but _no,_ of course the aroma lingers.”

_What._

“What are you still doing here? Go, go, discuss the romantic fate of National City’s favorite femme crime fighter!”

They went, hiding out in Kara’s office which, somehow, still smelled like the endless bouquets of azaleas (for gratitude) and violets (what, they look nice together!) Lena’d filled it with after they’d first met. Kara closed the door quietly, then let her forehead thud against it and let out a long groan.

“Kara?” Hesitant, Lena put a hand on her back, fingers curling over the top of her shoulder. “You okay?”

“This is so dumb,” she sighed. “I mean - we - we’re _friends,_ right? Just… friends?”

Lena flushed pinker than those azaleas and nodded sharply. “Yep! Yes, we’re just. Um. Just friends.”

“I mean, friends are allowed to touch each other, and have meals together, and co-own a dog, and have sleepovers, and - ” Kara spun around, plaintively peering at Lena through her glasses. “I’m so sorry about all of this. You have so much on your plate right now, you don’t deserve to have your name raked through the mud.”

“What mud? This is probably the best press I’ll ever get, even with the…” Lena trailed off, calling up the image of one of the tweets she’d seen - _lena lamia luthor seducing supergirl and corrupting the american way with gay agenda #DISGUSTING #BURNTHEWITCH #69._ Retweeted fifteen thousand times; seventy thousand favorites. “The more _unpleasant_ stuff out there.” 

Kara grumbled something, crossing her arms tight.

“What was that?”

“Cat thinks so, too.”

 _Quelle suprise._ “Color me shocked.”

“A Luthor dating a Super hits plenty of checkmarks. Star-crossed lovers, that vastly misunderstood Romeo and Juliet trope… Cute lesbians.”

Blinking owlishly, Lena asked, “You think I’m cute?”

Kara squeezed her eyes shut. “Lena, cute is an understatement. _The_ understatement, actually.” She let out a sigh, smoothing her palms over her hair. “You dating Supergirl means positive press for your company, a pro-alien boost for your PR team, an explanation for why you have a doggy bed for Krypto - ”

She stopped, stock still, horror dawning on her face.

_“Oh, my god, we left Jeanne upstairs with Cat.”_

“Run.”

Turns out, Cat’s anti-dander rants were all guff. She had Jeanne literally eating out of the palm of her hand while she tapped away on a screen, ironically-named glasses slid halfway down her nose. 

“What’s the conclusion?”

“Um.”

“I may not look it, Ms. Luthor, but I am a very busy woman, and giving free PR advice is below my pay grade. I know because I deliberately set my pay grade high enough that I wouldn’t have to do this.”

Lena looked over at Kara, who gave a tiny nod, and really wished she was holding her hand. For reassurance’s sake. “We’re going to do it.”

Slowly, Cat cocked an eyebrow.

“The article! She means, she and I, um, Supergirl are going to do the article.” Kara flexed her hands before tucking them into her pockets.

“Fantastic. Schedule the interviews yourselves, you’re big girls, I’m sure you can handle it, and before I forget, never bring your dog in here unless she’s been freshly groomed, because this dress is Donna Karan and lint rollers smell atrocious. Are we clear?”

“Yes, Ms. Grant.”

“Okay!” Cat clicked her fingers, and Jeanne bounded over to Lena, who began petting behind her jaw immediately, shoulders softening. “Run along! And Kara?”

“Yes?”

“This is top priority. I want it in next week’s issue, cover story, so that hotel piece you’ve been incubating goes on the back burner.”

“Yes, Ms. Grant.”

☀︎

They scheduled the interview for that Friday, which would give Kara enough time to edit and Lena enough time to prepare herself to lie about dating a national hero.

Lena had never particularly enjoyed lying, and avoided it as much as she could. Since Lillian had been effectively dispatched and Kara had become a bigger part of her life, she hadn’t had to lie at all. Her tolerance for that distasteful vein of conversation had dropped drastically, and the nasty taste it left in her mouth seemed all the more pungent for it.

“I am dating Supergirl,” she said to herself.

Her heart fluttered.

The worst part about that lie was how badly she wished it wasn’t one, how sweet it was in her mouth to say. 

“I’m dating Supergirl.”

_Boof!_

Jeanne, now approaching four months in age, was fluffy enough that Lena’s hands all but disappeared as she petted her. She floated up to about chest height and licked Lena’s nose, and Lena wrapped her up in a hug.

“Hear that, Ms. b’Ark? I’m dating your mom.”

Licking her ear, Jeanne curled up, burying her nose in Lena’s throat. Her tail wagged softly, thumping against Lena’s ribs none too gently, but Lena didn’t mind. 

“Supergirl is my super girlfriend,” she said, a laugh bubbling out of her. It was nervous, it was giddy, it hurt coming out. 

The whole interview, the whole shoot, was a human interest piece that would serve to humanize Lena, as well as explain away the whole shared dog thing. And the pseudo proposal.

_Oh, god, people think Supergirl’s going to be my wife._

But because this wasn’t a corporate article in the business section of some newspaper run by old white men who thought they were revolutionaries, Lena couldn’t do what she usually did for interviews - show up in some articulately tailored suit and makeup fit for an arthouse murder mystery, be crisp and professional, get out as soon as possible and steer the conversation away from any tender topics. This interview would be unarmed, undefended; there would be no shying away from personal questions. The whole interview was just a series of personal questions that she had to lie about, and didn’t want to lie about, and didn’t want to be lying about.

She really, really wanted to be able to honestly say she was dating Supergirl.

Thursday morning, she woke up to a frantic phone call from Kara at two in the morning. The distinctive ringer she set for Kara usually never went off; texts fit into both of their busy schedules better and if they wanted to talk face to face, Kara could be wherever Lena was in less than ten seconds if they weren’t already sitting side by side. Lena had never felt so cold a rush of dread at the sound of an *NSYNC song. They barely got through two _bye_ s before she had accepted the call and almost fallen out of bed in the process.

“Kara, what’s wrong?”

“Bad news. Big news, bad news, big, bad news.”

She was whispering, harsh and sussurative. 

“Okay, what’s the news?”

“Cat’s decided to do the interview.”

_“What.”_

“She says that this is too big a story to trust solely with a cub, so she wants to supervise.”

_“What?!”_

“I know!”

“How is she going to supervise an interview where you’re..?” Lena groaned, flopping back onto her pillow, which was now covered in puppy. “Jeanne, that’s for my head, not your butt.”

Jeanne squirmed away, crawling onto Lena’s belly and curling up there.

“Good girl.”

“Oh, gosh, Lena, I’m so sorry. I know how big this is going to be for your company, and it’s a huge mess - ”

“Kara.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want to do this?”

“Do what?”

“Do you want to… ” _Oh, god, why?_ “Um. _Fake_ date me?”

There was a long pause. “Your company - ”

“Kara, _no_. Are you comfortable with this?”

Another pause - longer, heavier. “Does that matter?”

Lena bit her lip and squeezed her eyes so tightly shut she saw spots. _“Yes.”_

“Oh.” Kara’s pacing finally stopped, and only in its absence did Lena realize that Kara had probably destroyed her shoes with how fast she’d been walking; it had sounded like a fan or a white noise machine. “No, Lena, I don’t mind.”

“I know you hate keeping secrets.” Lena swallowed. “Lying.”

“Only because you hate it just as bad.”

Lena laughed, scratching the scruff of Jeanne’s neck. “Yeah, well, it’s part of corporate America.”

“You don’t really believe that.”

Sometimes, Lena wasn’t sure. 

“What I mean is,” and her voice stalled like an old car. She turned her head towards the window, staring out at the fat silvery moon that was only half as big as the lump in her throat. “What I mean is, Kara, people are going to say what they want to say and think what they want to think. If you’re not comfortable telling people that that you are - that _Supergirl_ _is!_ \- my… girlfriend, fiancée, whatever, then you don’t have to. We can tell them the - ” _godawful_ “ - truth, that we’re friends, that you gave me Krypto to keep me safe, that I was helping with your suit, that - that there is no _defiling_ going on between the Last Daughter of Krypton and the Luthor Bastard.”

“Don’t talk about yourself like that.” Kara’s voice was as stern as it got without slipping into her Hero register, and Lena suppressed a shiver. “You couldn’t defile me if you tried.”

“I’ve got some pretty dirty tricks up my sleeves, Ms. Danvers.”

Kara laughed. “Oh, yeah? I’ve spent fourteen years playing board games with Alex Danvers. You don’t know playing dirty until you spend seventeen hours against her in Monopoly.”

“And you never used your x-ray vision to cheat back?”

“I would _never_ use my powers for something so _frivolous._ ” The dark tone of Kara’s sarcastic drawl was a very effective rhetoric ace in the hole. Lena definitely didn’t wonder what she would look like through x-ray eyes.

“Does Cat want Kara Danvers there for the interview?”

“She wants Kara Danvers to write the first round of questions, based on her superior knowledge of both suspects, and arrange everything, because I’m the only one who has Supergirl’s number. I get shared space on the byline, but ‘this is the story of the century, if not the millennium,’ so Ms. Grant’s taking point.”

Lena laughed at Kara’s Ms. Grant impression - spot on - and said, “Ready to get engaged?”

Kara let loose a long string of giggles like soap bubbles from a wand, bright and quick to fade. “I - maybe just… dating?”

“Oh, of course.” Lena let out a breath. “Everyone knows I’m practically married to my work.”

“And saving the city takes up lots of time that would otherwise be spent on wedding planning. It wouldn’t be fair for Supergirl’s significant other, having to go it alone.”

“No one could ever feel alone knowing you love them.”

There was a moment, glowing like the tip of a taper just below the wick - muted and warm - before either of them spoke.

“I should let you get back to sleep - ”  
“I should let you get back to work - ”

They fell silent again.

“Why is it that, this time, I’m all cozy in bed and you’re overworking yourself, huh? Stop stealing my job.”

“You’re cute. Go to sleep.”

“Have you slept?”

“Woke up early to a message from Ms. Grant. It’s too late to go back to sleep now.”

Lena wrinkled her nose. “Sure it is, Ms. I Once Fell Asleep Cruising At 50,000 Feet Following The Sunrise.”

“I’ll come by yours with breakfast if you finish a REM cycle,” Kara bargained.

“How about you come by mine right now, get through that REM cycle with me, and we have breakfast together once there’s a place that’s actually open?”

Lena didn’t know why she dug herself into these situations. She didn’t know why she seemed hellbent on torturing herself like this. Kara obviously wasn’t tortured by it; she fell into bed beside Lena and Jeanne and almost immediately conked out, arm draped around Lena’s waist, fingers sleepily scratching Jeanne’s back. Lena, however, took another hour to fall back asleep; her brain kept whirling through a cycle of affection and anxiety and confused physical responses that waxed and waned with her ability to focus on the safety and coziness surrounding her. 

Eventually, she managed to get some shut-eye, waking to Jeanne - who had somehow had a growthspurt overnight, the lucky pup - standing on her shoulders and snuffling her face.

“Sorry,” Kara said. She was perched on the side of the bed, facing the window and buttoning up her shirt. “I was - thinking out loud, and I said _walk_ …”

Jeanne’s tail started to wag.

“She wanted to take you with us to the bakery.”

“That explains the leash on my chest.”

Kara grinned over her shoulder at Lena. Or at least, Lena thought she did; silhouetted, Lena could only see Kara’s eyelashes and sleep-mussed hair glowing golden in the sun while everything else was half a shadow. 

“She doesn’t have _thumbs_ , Lena. She can’t put it on herself.”

“And what happened to _your_ thumbs?” grumbled Lena, picking Jeanne up and righting herself before putting the puppy down in her lap. 

“Busy making me not naked.”

_Rather you were naked._

Lena shook away that thought and clipped on Jeanne’s leash. “Fly to Kara, nugget, I have to put on people clothes.”

Jeanne licked her face one last time and flew off. When she stopped, her leash whapped Kara’s shoulder, but Kara didn’t seem to mind, snatching the dog out of the air and flopping back onto the mattress.

Smiling, Lena stood. “Do I have time to shower?”

“Probably.”

Lena took the fastest shower she could manage - conditioner, body wash, shampoo, rinse - and pulled on some of the more comfortable clothes she’d accrued since becoming acquainted with Kara. The fact that no one seemed to recognize her in jeans and a sweater, plus her oft abandoned glasses, made her feel a little less idiotic for not recognizing Kara in her Supergirl uniform. 

“Oh, hey,” Kara said, voice a little strained. “That’s my sweater.”

Lena’s fingers curled into the cuffs. “I can take it off.”

“No! No, it’s - it’s okay.” Kara swallowed, smiling crookedly as she pushed her glasses onto her face. “It looks good on you.”

“If you want me not to wear it - ”

“You can wear it. You _should_ wear it!” Kara’s smile straightened out and she ran her fingers through her hair, corralling her loose curls down over one shoulder. Lena’s mouth went dry, because _fingers_ and _neck_ and _hair,_ because why the hell, on top of every other irresistible thing about Kara, did she have to have perfect hair, too?

“If you want me to,” hedged Lena.

There was a sudden intensity to Kara’s voice when she said, “I want you to,” and Lena didn’t have it in her to say no. 

Lena wore the sweater, sleeves hanging down onto her palms between her skin and the loop of Jeanne’s leash, but they walked downstairs with the puppy in Kara’s arms. 

Once they were out on the street, with the barely-risen sun in their eyes, Kara set Jeanne down with the warning, “Paws on the ground, okay, baby?”

Jeanne mostly heeded her, but she did jump a little too high, a little too long, more than a few times. Thankfully, it was early enough that no one was awake to see them. 

When they got to the bakery, Lena ordered an espresso ‘the size of her whole body’ (her usual 48oz travel mug) and an apricot pastry that absolutely wasn’t just a fancy PopTart, wrangling their dog while Kara finagled two two-dozen-doughnut boxes and a petite 12oz sugar bomb made with heavy cream. 

“Is there whipped cream in there, too?” Lena teased, passing Kara the honey and cinnamon.

“Yep.”

“I can’t watch. Diabetes runs in my family.”

Kara snorted, stirring slowly so as not to deflate the crown of whipped cream. “You do know there are one thousand, two hundred and thirty two milligrams of caffeine in yours, right?”

“I need them, Kara. Caffeine is my one true love.”

_Boof!_

Kara’s coffee splashed over the lip of her cup, and she hissed, _“Shoot!”_ before tossing out the stirrer and putting on the cap. 

Lena reached for the napkins and found that, if not for the overlong sleeves, their hands would have brushed in the most achingly cheesy way. Knowing that, and knowing she’d somehow serendipitously circumvented that, Lena’s cheeks went pink. 

They sopped up the spill - a tiny thing, really - and headed out. Lena licked her fingers clean and rolled up her sleeves. 

“So,” Kara said, clearing her throat, “you feel… ready? For tomorrow?”

“As I’ll ever be, I suppose.” Lena took a long, too-hot swallow of coffee and winced as the burn traveled all the way down to the pit of her stomach, where it lingered for what felt like forever. “Are you?”

“I submitted my questions to Ms. Grant after our phone call.” Kara sipped her own drink, coming away with a dot of cream on her nose. Endearingly, she stretched her tongue out to get it.

And then she managed it.

 _Brain,_ Lena thought venomously, _shut up._

“Well, I bet they’re going to be marvelous.” Lena squinted out at the horizon, at the sun pinpointed through two mirrored office buildings. “Probing - ” _oh, god, why?_ “ - and direct without being invasive or abrasive. You, Ms. Danvers, have a way with words.”

“Thanks, Lena.” Kara smiled wide enough that her cheeks pushed her glasses up. “I mean - I worked really hard on them. I want this to go well for you, you know? Because you’re my friend.”

“And as a friend, I super appreciate that.”

Kara snorted.

“What? What did I say?”

Kara, grinning behind her drink, inclined her head towards Lena’s chest, complete with a pointed gaze. Lena’s brain went blank; when it finally came back online, she looked down, thinking perhaps she’d spilled, but no. Nothing. 

And then: “Oh!”

The insignia. An El, that looked like an S for Super. 

Lena cringed, then started to giggle. “Wow, Lena, way to go.”

“Aw, no, I thought it was cute.” Kara nudged her shoulder into Lena’s, smiling down beatifically at her. “I treasure every pun.”

“Then,” said Lena, bringing her mug to her lips, “you’ve made yourself a wildly wealthy woman.”

“Oh, I don’t need to,” Kara said with a shrug. “I’m marrying up, didn’t you hear?”

Lena let out a strange little _eep!,_ too-hot coffee scorching her mouth. Jeanne whined, pulling up short and nosing at her. “Oh, I’m okay, nugget, don’t worry.”

“Too hot?”

“Yeah.” Lena hissed. _“Crap.”_

Kara knelt and set her burdens down, chiding Jeanne not to chew on the coffee cup, before standing back up and cradling Lena’s hands - her cup - in her own. She brought her lips to the lid, lingering for a moment, before pulling away. 

Her eyes only left Lena’s moments after her hands did, and her glasses, which had slid down her nose, momentarily obscured them as Kara pushed her frames back into place. “How about now?”

Lena swallowed, something in her stuttering like a broken gear, and took a slow sip. She smiled. “Perfect.”

☀︎

Being dressed down in softer civilian clothes than she usually wore next to Kara in her full super suit made Lena feel very small but very safe. They were in Lena’s apartment for the interview, which was in and of itself deeply unnerving, but with the weight of Kara’s arm around her and of Jeanne in her lap, it was slightly less terrifying. 

Cat Grant balanced that out, though. She was the same kind of sharp, intimidating woman Lena was used to dealing with, but there was a reclusive warmth in her eyes that Lena wouldn’t have expected if not for Kara’s stories about her. 

“So,” Cat said, crossing her long legs on the couch opposite them, a funny smile playing about her lips, “this is the best friend?”

Lena’s heart stopped for a moment, and then Kara’s arm, draped around her shoulder, came up, and her fingers tucked a strand of hair behind Lena’s ear, and she laughed. 

“You could say that,” she joked, fingers gliding over Lena’s jaw and the column of her throat. “And there’s Lena, too.”

_Boof!_

Cat laughed, as much as one could without moving a muscle or making a sound, then said, “So let’s talk about Girl of Steel’s best friend _first,_ then.”

“Do you mean Superdog?” Lena cocked an eyebrow, the sort of move that she’d personally used to clear boardrooms, to no effect. “I don’t take too kindly to a stranger renaming my dog, Ms. Grant.”

“How was anyone to know she was yours? Well, until that little snafu by L Corp with that _animal_.”

Lena thought, for a moment, on Molly and Anna. Anna’s shoulder, as far as she knew, was recovering well; the physical therapy Lena had insisted on footing the bill for kept showing up on her bank statements, and Molly had sent a thank you card to her office, complete with a crayon sketch of Jeanne, Lena, and Supergirl flying together. 

“Supergirl intercepted a Kryptonian pod,” Lena began, scratching Jeanne’s scruff, “that contained this tiny nugget. After the invasion in May, there was some… _backlash_ , to say the least, both internally and externally.”

“Internally?”

Kara squeezed Lena’s shoulder, and Lena resisted the urge to burrow into her side. “I mean, being kidnapped and almost forced into marriage by someone you thought you could trust, it’s hard to see a world where that’s not thoroughly traumatizing,” she quipped. 

“I wanted a way to protect her from future attempts, but also to make her feel loved.”  Kara kissed Lena’s temple in a maneuver that usually felt quite natural; now, under this scrutiny, Lena found herself questioning it. “I - we both live busy lives. We can’t always intersect. But, um, _Krypto_ here can always be with her. There’s an Earth expression I’ve always liked - loyal as a dog.”

“There’s another one,” Cat drawled, words somehow both drawn out and clipped short. “Puppy love. How did you make the transition between best friends, as you described your relationship to me during the invasion, Supergirl, to… affianced?”

“Well, we’re not - ”

“We aren’t _affianced_ \- ”

Cat leaned back into the chair, observing them down the smooth slope of her nose. “Is it the Super versus Luthor conflict?”

 _“No!”_ Kara’s jaw tensed, and both Jeanne and Lena immediately shifted to comfort her.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s - Lena Luthor saved the entire world in May. One instance out of many in the past year alone that proves she’s nothing like her family. She’s - she’s lovely. She’s smart and she’s brave and she’s good - the Maaldorian attack? She opened her building to everyone she could get safe from the chaos; she ran out into the street to save people. She’s the antithesis of evil. She is the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.” Kara nodded crisply, punctuating this effusive decree, and the flicker of doubt that had spawned in Lena’s chest died. “She’s my hero.”

Lena let her head rest on Kara’s shoulder. 

“How very romantic.”

Lena started to move away, but then Kara’s hand was in her hair, gliding through dark strands like water, fingertips soothing against her scalp. “Yeah,” she said softly, “I guess it is.”

“So, with all that love between you, why deny an engagement?”

“Well, it’s like she said,” Lena murmured. “We both lead immensely busy lives. I may have saved the world once - ”

_“More than once.”_

“More than - fine, more than once. But _she?_ She saves the world every day.” Lena bit her lip. “Do I miss her, when she’s gone? Yes. Am I worried, constantly, about her safety? Of course. Before I met… _Supergirl,_ I was totally alone. She gave me hope; she gave me a home. She loved me when no one else did. If I could be with her, protect her, always, I would, no matter what.

“That’s where the photo came from. I made her a new suit - I - I knelt down to fix something on the cuff.” Wetly, Lena laughed. “I would marry this woman in a heartbeat, Ms. Grant, but it wouldn’t be fair. To either of us. Making that kind of commitment when our lives are structured, by necessity, so we can’t follow through… doing that to her would break my. heart.”

_Boof._

Jeanne licked Lena’s chin, and she smiled wanly. 

“That’s an awfully heavy sentiment, considering how long you’ve been together. It can’t have been more than a few months.”

“It hasn’t been long, no,” Kara admitted. “Being close to people is something that’s always worried me. When you.” She stopped; Lena took her hand, thumb rubbing over the ridges of her knuckles. “When you lose everyone you’ve ever loved, you become very afraid of loving people like that again, of having family again, because you might lose them like that again. 

“I’ve found a community, I’ve become less afraid, but my love life has never been where I’m safe or comfortable or secure.” She squeezed Lena’s hand and softly said, “I’m not afraid when I’m with her.”

Lena could feel her cheeks going pink, and she curled her feet up under her on the couch. 

“And you, Lena?”

“Well, I… I can’t say I understand what it feels like to lose your whole planet, your whole world. But I’ve lost people, and it definitely leaves a mark on you.” She shifted her weight, and as she moved, Kara moved with her, arm sliding down to cradle her waist and pull her even closer. “It made me feel incredibly lonely, but I don’t feel lonely anymore. I’m not - no relationship can fix you. Especially in the lesbian community, in the sapphic community, there’s this feeling that you’ve found your people, and we just cling to the idea of being in love because finally, being in love clicks. And it’s tempting, but so dangerous, because I, personally, have a bad habit of putting on blinders with the people who are even just… _kind_ to me. I can forgive anything, but Supergirl has never given me anything to forgive.”

Cat leaned forward, elbows on knees, and stared Lena down. “Supergirl,” she said, not breaking eye contact, “you’ve always been something of a gay icon.”

Now it was Kara’s turn to blush, and Lena had never been so thankful to see it. She didn’t know quite why she’d gone all out and bared her soul, but the sooner they moved past it, the better. 

“I, um.” Kara blinked. “I have?”

“Yeah, sunshine,” teased Lena. “It’s something of a gay rite of passage to have a crush on a Kryptonian. I had a crush on you from the very first moment we met. Someone had tried to kill me, my helicopter almost crashed out of the sky, my pilot was passed out, and there you were, all… gorgeous and competent and swoon-worthy. My weak, gay ass never stood a chance.”

Kara giggled, pressing her hand over her mouth. “You - ? _Really?”_

“The only reason I didn’t totally melt down was because I didn’t want to cry in front of the cute girl.”

“Oh, _Lena.”_  

Shrugging, Lena burrowed in closer to avoid looking Kara in the eye, because, yes, that was the unfortunate case. Jeanne, ever helpful, sat up in their lap - and when had they joined laps? when did Lena end up basically _sitting in Kara’s lap?_ \- and concealed her face.

“You know when I first realized I liked you?” Kara asked.

Dryly, Lena replied, “When?” expecting no real response.

“When you asked me to your gala. The charity event, to raise money to fix the children’s hospital? You were nervous - ”

_“Nervous?”_

“I could hear it. I could hear your little rabbit heart - _ba-bum, ba-bum, ba-bum_ \- pounding away in there.” Kara’s fingers grazed over Lena’s chest through the soft knit of her sweater, just below her collarbone, and even through the thick fabric, Lena would have sworn on her life that she could feel Kara’s fingertips. “You were nervous, you were scared I’d turn you down, but you asked anyway. You were honest and you were open and you were _brave._ You were putting your life on the line with that party, your heart on the line with me.” Kara sighed. “And then you bit your lip, and blushed, and you smiled so big when I said yes…

“How could I be anything but smitten? I wanted you all to myself.” She shrugged, like she hadn’t just said something that would’ve absolutely killed Lena to admit.

“Really?”

Kara nodded, as slow as the smile spreading across her face, or the sun rising, and said, “Yeah.”

“But you were so - cool! And collected!”

“Me? You faced off against those goons like they were nothing. And that black body field generator… _Rao,_ Lena, you were so smart, and so cunning, and so strong. _You_ were cool.”

Lena fought a giddy giggle and found her arm had fallen across Jeanne’s back to wrap around Kara’s waist. “Who would’ve believed it,” she started to say, finally looking up and meeting Kara’s gaze. “A Luthor and a Super - ”

The kiss was over almost before Lena realized it had begun. She chased Kara’s mouth with her own, breath hitching, eyes fluttering open, when they broke apart.

“ - ‘working together.’” Kara smiled, cupping Lena’s cheek with infinite tenderness. “And you say I have a way with words.”

☀︎

Monday morning, the cover of CatCo magazine was something Lena didn’t just want framed. She wanted it put on billboards and JumboTrons. She wanted it engraved on tectonic plates and branded on her every cell. 

As it was, it was her, curled up in Kara’s lap. Most of her face was eclipsed by Kara’s hand - only her eyes and lips were really visible - but even so, she looked utterly moonstruck. Kara had managed a similarly besotted look. Jeanne, the little shit, was looking into the camera over her shoulder like a cross between a glamor shot and a still from The Office. 

They looked like a family.

Lena bought one from every newsstand in the city, always in disguise, and saved the pictures sneakily taken while they’d spoken, and the interview, and the cover. She folded everything up and hid it away just in time for Kara to arrive with a copy just for her. 

“You look great,” Kara said, closing the door to Lena’s office behind her. Her cheeks were pink, a perfect match for her pictured self. 

“Well,” said Lena, a lump back in her throat, “you’re an incredible actress.”

She had the issue, signed with Supergirl’s name in a heart, framed for her office, and pretended there wasn’t a melancholy pit in her chest, just below her fluttering heart, whenever she looked at it.

**Author's Note:**

> Y'know how I said I was trying to avoid plot? I am a filthy liar. 
> 
> The post that inspired this lives [here](http://unicyclehippo.tumblr.com/post/161333994557/unicyclehippo-karzorel-i-would-kill-for-a). The bit about Lena being overwhelmed by Gay Feelings to the point that she just can't process her understandable Holy Shit NDE feelings comes from [here](http://motorcyclegirlfriends.tumblr.com/post/159019395357/luthorial-lena-just-gets-on-with-her-life-every).   
> The suit's aesthetic is super unclear within the story, but I was looking at [this](http://evillordzog.tumblr.com/post/9372295567/awyeahlongbox-romanadvoratrelundar-i-dont), particularly the last one, and [these](https://plastic-pipes.deviantart.com/art/Supergirl-Alternate-Outfits-683418231). Also, Red K!Kara's suit is very important.
> 
> Sorry this has taken so dang long to put up; school's been busy lately, but I'm getting a handle on it. I hope you enjoyed this gay angst fest.


End file.
